Those Islands are Small. Other Continents with Bigger Concerns

It might be small and it is not the only place to have the horrors of World visited upom them

Cyclone Tracy, 1974

On Christmas Eve 1974, Cyclone Tracy struck the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory. One hundred and ninety-five millimetres of rain fell in less than nine hours, and winds of around 250 km per hour flattened the city. In terms of damage to a community, Cyclone Tracy remains Australia's most destructive for property damage. Sixty-four people were killed, and many thousands injured. Of a population of 43,000, 25,000 were left homeless. One result was the priority given to the development of cyclone-proof buildings.

Death Toll: - 65 people

Injuries: - 145 serious injuries,

Over 500 with minor injuries

Number of Houses Destroyed: -

70% of houses with serious structural failure.

The experience of natural disaster has come to be seen as part of the Australian national character as described in the poem

'My Country' by Dorothea McKellar (1904).

My Country

by

Dorothea Mackellar

(1885 - 1968)

The love of field and coppice,

of green and shaded lanes.

Of ordered woods and gardens

Is running in your veins,

Strong love of grey-blue distance

Brown streams and soft dim skies

I know but cannot share it,

My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons;

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror -

The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest

All tragic to the moon,

The sapphire-misted mountains,

The hot gold hush of noon.

Green tangle of the brushes,

Where lithe lianas coil,

And orchids deck the tree-tops

And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!

Her pitiless blue sky,

When sick at heart, around us,

We see the cattle die-

But then the grey clouds gather,

And we can bless again

The drumming of an army,

The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!

Land of the Rainbow Gold,

For flood and fire and famine,

She pays us back threefold-

Over the thirsty paddocks,

Watch, after many days,

The filmy veil of greenness

That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,

A wilful, lavish land-

All you who have not loved her,

You will not understand-

Though earth holds many splendours,

Wherever I may die,

I know to what brown country

My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea Mackellar

In January 1974, the weakening Cyclone Wanda brought heavy rainfall to Brisbane and many parts of south-eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales. One third of Brisbane's city centre and 17 suburbs were severely flooded. Fourteen people died and over 300 were injured. Fifty-six homes were washed away and 1,600 were submerged.

Asian Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster

• by Anup Shah

Boxing day, 2004, one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history (measuring 9 on the Richter Scale), struck just off Sumatra, Indonesia, in a fault line running under the sea. The rupture caused massive waves, or tsunamis, that hurtled away from the epicenter, reaching shores as far away as Africa. Some 230,000 people were killed and the livelihoods of millions were destroyed in over 10 countries. This has been one of the biggest natural disasters in recent human history.

• One of the largest earthquakes in recorded history
• Enormous Death toll and Devastation

One of the largest earthquakes in recorded history

Measuring 9 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake that hit under the sea near the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra was the strongest earthquake in the world for 40 years.

The massive 1,000km rupture along the Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates resulted in huge tsunami waves (or sea surges) crashing into coastal areas across south and east Asia, even reaching eastern Africa.

Source: 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, Wikimedia Commons [Larger Map]

Countries affected were:

• Indonesia
• Sri Lanka
• India
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• Burma
• Bangladesh
• Maldives
• Seychelles
• Somalia
• Kenya
• Tanzania
• Madagascar
• South Africa

Enormous Death toll and Devastation

It is believed that 230,000 people died.

The BBC also lists the worst recorded disasters in recent history, and shows that this tsunami disaster is one of the worst. Their information is tabulated as follows:

Natural DisastersSource: Tsunami among world's worst disasters, BBC, December 30, 2004

Year

Where

How many killed

Type of disaster

2003

Bam, Iran

26,271

Earthquake

1976

Tangshan, China

242,000

Earthquake

1970

Bangladesh

500,000

Cyclone

1923

Tokyo, Japan

140,000

Earthquake

1896

Japan

27,000

Tsunami

1887

Huayan Kou, China

900,000

Yellow River breaks its banks

1815

Sumbawa Island, Indonesia

90,000

Volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora

1556

Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces, China

830,000 estimated

Earthquake

For those who have survived, the future looks bleak as whole communities have been wiped out, and many of the survivors have been left homeless. The United Nations estimates that some 5 million lives have also been affected.

There is now great concern that disease will result from poor sanitation and lack of clean water. In addition, it is feared that there will be a proliferation of endemic disesases as a result of the stagnant pools of water that have been created. It is feared that these will claim just as many lives as the waves did.

This disaster also has to be taken in the context of on-going problems. Some regions, such as north eastern Sri Lanka, or Aceh in Indonesia, have seen violent conflicts for many years, as separatist rebels struggle with the government. For example, the United Nations reports that many landmines have been dislogded by the tsunamis in Sri Lanka. These were planted during the long-running civil war. The tsunami waves have spread them to other areas, and no-one would know where, exactly. As people slowly return to their homes and villages, they could face yet more problems.

Christopher Jones asks: Was the seaquake that caused the Indian ocean tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands caused by an American-Israeli-Indian nuclear test? The Egyptian publication Al Osboa seems to think so; it was also the subject of a “Panorama” documentary on the German public network, ARD. Was this the reason why George Bush was nonplussed by the event and the US lagging behind the rest of the western world in relief contributions? I am forwarding this, a small contribution to expose the truth behind that terrible event: